Behold, as I score a critical hit against the darkness. Begone, foul shadows!
Hah. :)
Should have a post up later tonight. Wanted to give folks a chance to post. Its been slow.
Just a heads up to everyone, I am traveling for work today and tomorrow. I will not be able to post until later tonight when I am back at the hotel, and likely not until tomorrow night after that.
Hey all, posting this to all my games because I don't have much time:
I'll be very busy today; I'm on the tail end of my software engineering studies, and today is the commitment ceremony for the Quebecois Engineers' Organization.
As you can guess, this will leave me little time for PbP.
See you all tomorrow!
I'm going to pop up one last friendly reminder about my posting requirements. I'm having to do a lot of driving here and there has been almost zero involvement from a majority of the party in the past week. I realize several people have stuff going on, and I've noted that accordingly. However, if you have lost interest in the game, let me know, and I can work to find replacements. We had over thirty applicants to this game and I am sure many of them would be happy for the chance to play.
- You must be a daily poster. Preference will be made for those who show higher activity on the boards and a history of PbP activity. I will strive to always keep the game moving and expect players who will do the same. I am usually online during the day and post mostly in that window of time between 6am and 6pm EST, so that is when my most active hours will be. Obviously things happen, so I do understand that at times you might be unable to post, or I also might be otherwise detained. If that happens in the case of a player, I will allow a reasonable amount of time before GMPC'ing you along.- If a player fails to post within a reasonable amount of time without notifying the group that they will be unavailable they will be moved to inactive status, removed from the active game, and replaced with another applicant. I am taking this one seriously folks and I won't let an inactive player ruin it for everyone else. So understand what you are committing to before you apply. If you will be away a few days, let the group know and give us some standard marching orders for while you are away. The game will go on, but at least others won't be waiting for you.
- You must be willing to ROLE play, not just ROLL play. The GM feeds off of the players, so a good group of role-players helps the game take on a life of its own. You don't have to fill every post with three paragraphs describing how you took your morning coffee, but you should be able to write well and play your character well. If I find all you do is post "I follow Bob, my sword ready" and post a lot of "Gug gug, I'm a barbarian" (unless you are Gug the Barbarian) type stuff, you will be summarily removed from the campaign, tied to a hippogriff, and flown over a field of elven archers for target practice.
/rant off
Thank you
Posting this to all my games. I am heading out of town tomorrow until Mon-Tues next week. I should still be able to get a post in at least daily but it is possible that might not happen. Just wanted to give a heads up.
Thanks!
@Bellanie - I'll scoot you along if I notice you havent posted in a bit.
For everyone else, I've contacted the player of Hannah and let them know I was removing her from the game. While she started off strong, her posting dwindled to almost nothing over the past two weeks.
At this time I am not going to replace the slot, since that leaves us with six still. I do however worry about the lack of an arcane character. While I am sure you all can succeed, that is a pretty big hole to fill at the mid and higher levels. Unfortunately, there were only a couple arcane applicants to the game and most were outside of my guidelines.
We will see how it goes.
Well, not that I am volunteering to die or anything, but if it should happen, I could probably come up with a Wizard character...
It might not be a huge issue, we will just have to see. There are obviously a lot of resources that could go unused, and some pretty helpful spells will be missing, but it isnt the end of the world. I'm obviously not going to kill someone off so they can roll a different class. I'll sacrifice mechanics for story any day.
Wanted to give everyone an update on my schedule for the next few weeks, since I'm about to hit convention season full stride.
I am supporting or running conventions this weekend, next weekend, and the first weekend in May. Basically what that means is I'll be doing prep in the evenings, starting tonight, and will be mostly unavailable between Friday and Sunday of those weekends.
I apologize in advance if gameplay lags during these dates, but I encourage everyone to drive the game accordingly in my absence.
After this spat of weekends I will also be gone the first week of June supporting Origins and the last week of July for GenCon. During those two weeks it is likely I will have no time to post, and those specific conventions run from Wednesday to Sunday.
Sorry I have missed out posting the last few days. I came down with a flu bug Thursday night & have alternated bed-ridden with being violently ill in the bathroom since then. Feeling better now.
Back in the saddle this morning. Posting shortly! :)
I will be back to my normal schedule this afternoon. On the road today.
A heads up to all my groups: I'm entering some of the craziest three weeks of my studies. I'm only that much away from graduating, and I have a lot of work to do. My posting will likely be somewhat lackluster during that time, so please forgive me for this.
Feel free to bot me as needed.
With the game still just starting out, and the recent departure of Hannah, I'll understand if you'd rather I step down.
Reminder for all of my games, both those I am running and those I am playing in, I am away at a convention this weekend and will likely not be posting. I will make an attempt to get online tomorrow night and post if possible, but I doubt I will have time. I will be back Sunday night.
Thanks! :)
The bad guys studied this film well before setting up their ambush...
That was great :)
So, are we on our way out to regroup?
I am going to be taking a little vacation starting Thursday and through Saturday the 25th. I expect to be able to post regularly during this time, but if I get behind, please bot me as necessary. If you are in one of my games, just be patient, please. I shall try to check in daily, at a minimum.
Yep, have a nice time!
Will be later today before I can post any updates. Busy morning at work!
Another convention to support this weekend, so I'll be limited in posting after this until Monday. I may be able to sneak in one or two, but no promises!
Have a great weekend all!
Just an FYI, I'm going to be opening recruitment up tonight and will be looking for an arcane type to add to our group. I've written to Iacobus and notified him that I am seeking a replacement for his character.
I did want to ask the group if there was a reason that things seem to be dragging out so much lately. I don't know if I am not properly engaging you all, the game itself isn't enjoyable, or what, but it seems like posting has really started to lag a bit. I want to do whatever is in my power to improve that, so I could really use some feedback from you all. Open forum, speak your minds!
Thanks!
I'm good. Just on vacation until Sunday. Trying to keep pace, though.
I'm good. Just on vacation until Sunday. Trying to keep pace, though.
Yea, I know you are on vacation, and I appreciate the check-ins even though I expected you to be absent for the week. :)
I'm in the tail end of university, and finishing up my last project, hence the huge downturn in activity. I'll definitely be back to keep up once I'm done.
I have asked about party healing twice but gotten no response.
I am partly at fault here. I should have said something, but being rather busy with real-life happenings, it slipped my mind.
I agree that we need a more united plan. It was pretty obvious in this battle that, as the idiom goes "The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing."
I think right now you all are suffering heavily in the healing department, not really for a lack of anyone doing what they can. That should resolve itself very soon. Just slog through a little bit more and there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I think the retreat thing is more due to the fact that there is no dedicated healer and that the most recent combat situations had you all at a huge disadvantage. Stacking up in a 5' hallway against a troll is never a good thing. :)
I do agree that tactically you are struggling, but I see this more as each member is learning the strengths and talents of the others. In a real situation you wouldn't suddenly become a well-honed fighting force after knowing each other for 3 days, so this actually makes sense. Its pretty serious metagaming when a group of strangers can suddenly become a well-oiled combat machine in that span of time, as many of the party members are not familiar with dungeon crawling and combat. I am sure the characters will develop over time and these areas will clean themselves up.
Having spoken with Captain Tripps, he & I have agreed that I am just not managing to maintain the level of...
involvement, in this game that it and the rest of you deserve. I am bowing out. You guys have fun & rock it.
Captain Tripps, would you go ahead & move me to the previous players/characters file in the thread, please?
I've moved you to the inactive side of things. Best of luck man! :)
My take is largely in line with the Captains second paragraph. I think we need a bit of time for our characters to learn about each other and for the players to do the same. As we move forward things will smooth out and flow better.
I've posted a new recruitment thread HERE and would like feedback from you all on the applicants. In the end I will make the final decision but I'd also like to hear your thoughts as well.
For the sake of privacy, please shoot me PMs with who you think would make a good addition to the group and I'll weigh the feedback accordingly. There is a good spot coming up VERY soon to add someone, so I'd like to hasten this choice as much as possible.
Thanks!
I think it would probably be best if I stepped down as well.
I've been justifying my lack of activity to myself with uni work, but to be honest with myself, I'm just struggling to keep up, and that's hurting my enjoyment. I'm probably not the best player for this game, and I'd rather not have the pressure of keeping up with a game that's faster than I can follow.
As you're already in the process of recruiting, I believe this is a good moment as any to take a bow and exit stage left alongside my brother.
Thanks for having me, Captain, and have a good game, everyone, it's been nice.
I'll definitely be picking up a bit more healing than I have been up to now.
There is relief in sight. In plain sight actually :) I definitely don't want you to be forced into the healer role, as druids add far more than that to a group. For these levels though, until you all get a little more experience and loot under your belt, it will be needed more often than not.
Oh darn. I hoped no one would post before my edit went through after I had my... let's say 'revelation.'
Please make sure you scroll back up and see my edit.
It's sad that I just realized that apart from Iacobus, none of you have spellcraft. Therefore the identification of magic items is beyond your ability at the moment. For the sake of helping move things along, and giving a bit of a reveal at this point, I'm going to GMNPC Iacobus along with the party for a while until such time as I can work out a proper exit for him and Hannah, who has also been out of play for quite a while.
Finch, understood. It is sad to lose you, but I do understand. And the last of the children of Trunau make their exit. I will have something in store for them that will help with that soon.
For everyone else, that means I'll be pushing three PCs along as NPCs. Feel free to move forward as you will.
I'll also send out some feelers for a divine replacement.
Thanks for understanding, and again, my apologies.
Rufus, Captain, I'll see you in the other games we have in common.
Everyone else, here's hoping our paths will cross again.
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Sorry to see you guys go.
I too agree that its right and proper that we should not yet be acting as a cohesive team. Not an issue at all and was only pointing it out as part of the reason for slow progress.
I'll look at the recruitment later today.
Also. I wanted to give a heads up that I will be traveling from Friday after work through late Monday and my posting will be light and in the evenings, if at all. I should be back to normal Tuesday. Please GMbot me if needed.
Yeah I think the biggest problem is a lack of a cohesive plan. I am trying to keep things moving ahead scouting out additional rooms but I don't want to stumble into encounters if we aren't ready to progress.
Generally when that happens it means someone needs to step up and lead. As long as the party is willing, that bit of direction might help. :)
Just echoing the sentiment that it's sad to see Iacobus and Finch go. Both of you were great to play with and had cool character concepts. I wish you both well finding games that pace out better for you.
As for the lead topic I agree and would suggest that when in indoor dungeon crawl type scenarios that we let Bella take the lead (figuratively and physically). I'm in another PbP where I'm the sneaky halfling and it seems to flow pretty well when the door checker is pushing things forward. The rest of us can post more general position and "if/then" stances and chime in if we need to.
Outside Sasha and/or Johan can take the lead and Cor (or if we get a better face) can take the lead socially.
This isn't to say everyone shouldn't be contributing but pacing off the primary should help us all keep things moving.
All players:
Please come up with "wish lists" for your characters in terms of future items. As we move forward I am going to be replacing a lot of what is in the AP with my own items, many of them custom (See the Razmirian Ring of Seeming) and would prefer to be able to tailor items specific to your characters rather than do a lot of guessing. I'm far more a fan of giving you things via loot that you will use rather than making you sell loot and then try to find someone selling what you want.
Just place a spoiler somewhere on your character profile called Wish List and put your list there. Please plan this ahead and don't be afraid to ask for items that are better than you might be getting at current levels. In terms of weapons and armor, types and specific properties work best. No need for "+2 Longsword", but if you want a holy weapon, bane, allying, etc those are helpful to know.
Also, for the new players, please add a stat block similar to the other characters under your class/level profile entry to I can quickly see things like saving throws, common skills, AC, CMD, etc. It helps me a LOT to not have to open character profiles when I am working through combat and checks.
Thanks!
Welcome Szacha!
On the future plans topic I'll start putting something together for Cor.